Reeling under their worst performance in two decades, the Shiv Sena is now blaming the Marathi people saying they betrayed the party that has stood by them in hard times and has been fighting for their cause.

In the second consecutive editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna after the election results, Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray blamed “ungrateful” Marathi people of Mumbai for “betraying” the party.

“We never thought that the Maharashtrians for whom the Sena fought for 44 years would turn their back on us and backstab us. Have lost faith in everything...because in this election, it was neither the migrants nor people speaking other languages (that damaged us), it was the Marathi people who betrayed us,” Thackeray writes, adding: “We have booth-wise analysis of regions with other language pockets, but in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik belts we had always staked our claim over voters. We fail to understand why the Marathi people who approach Sena during their times of distress turned away from the party during elections.”

Thackeray says the only solace is the fact that though the Marathi Mumbaikar had lost his way, many Marathi people in the state in the new Assembly constituencies had reposed their faith in Sena and elected its candidates.

“Despite Mumbai’s Marathi people taking a different stand, people in the rest of the state have stood by us. We have struggled to unite Marathis and formed our base on it, others have just gained from us,” Thackeray writes.

“It was said that this state would never breed betrayal, with the current outcome, should we assume that it will not be held true anymore?” Outlining the various campaigns by Sena during the years, the editorial asks why Marathi voters had forgotten the party.

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